 impishly, »there is the
idea of nationalities; I daresay the wild asses are snuffing it, and getting
more gregarious.«
    »You don't share that idea?« said Deronda, finding a piquant incongruity
between Pash's sarcasm and the strong stamp of race on his features.
    »Say rather, he does not share that spirit,« said Mordecai, who had turned a
melancholy glance on Pash. »Unless nationality is a feeling, what force can it
have as an idea?«
    »Granted, Mordecai,« said Pash, quite good-humouredly. »And as the feeling
of nationality is dying, I take the idea to be no better than a ghost, already
walking to announce the death.«
    »A sentiment may seem to be dying and yet revive into strong life,« said
Deronda. »Nations have revived. We may live to see a great outburst of force in
the Arabs, who are being inspired with a new zeal.«
    »Amen, amen,« said Mordecai, looking at Deronda with a delight which was the
beginning of recovered energy: his attitude was more upright, his face was less
worn.
    »That may hold with backward nations,« said Pash, »but with us in Europe the
sentiment of nationality is destined to die out. It will last a little longer in
the quarters where oppression lasts, but nowhere else. The whole current of
progress is setting against it.«
    »Ay,« said Buchan, in a rapid thin Scotch tone which was like the letting in
of a little cool air on the conversation, »ye've done well to bring us round to
the point. Ye're all agreed that societies change - not always and everywhere -
but on the whole and in the long-run. Now, with all deference, I would beg
t'observe that we have got to examine the nature of changes before we have a
warrant to call them progress, which word is supposed to include a bettering,
though I apprehend it to be ill chosen for that purpose, since mere motion
onward may carry us to a bog or a precipice. And the questions I would put are
three: Is all change in the direction of progress? if not, how shall we discern
which change is progress and which not? and thirdly, how far and in what ways
can we act upon the course of change so as to promote it where it is beneficial,
and divert it where it is injurious?«
    But Buchan's attempt to impose his method on the talk was a failure.
